I think this scale embodies better the massive battles that were happening at that time. 28mm is fine for games like Bolt Action and other WW2 scenarios more squad-based and platoon-based with encounters such as skirmishes. Napoleonic wars still maintained that essence of having two large armies with thousands of soldiers clashing in the middle of a field. At this scale, it looks like a battle from Napoleon: Total War.
Not to mention this way you can have a massive army ready to go for a fraction of the price of 28mm! Even with Warlord figures, you'd need to buy at least 2 boxes of troops and a commander figure just to have a single brigade. Now, you can get a whole full-sized brigade INCLUDING commander, in a single box for the price of 1 unit of 28mm troops
I love this approach! Open up the hobby! Quit shaming the casual gamer, we were all once just casual gamers pushing unpainted plastic toy soldiers around the table. This is how we grow the hobby. some may never move past casual, but some will want to invest in paint and table terrain. I really love these figures.
I've got to admit, I kind of like the look of the red and blue figures. I never thought I'd say anything other than unpainted figures are unacceptable on the game table. And certainly I think that holds for metal or other coloured plastic figures. But, there is an undeniable charm with the blue and red. I wonder what colour the Prussians will be?
Looks awesome! I actually prefere the unpainted look. I can see some great applications for this besides serious war gaming aswell. A teaching aid for explaining linear warfare for example. As an historically based toy for the kids. A simple yet easily built museum or exhibit display. It's just a shame there isn't a similar starter set containing units from both sides like there is for the American Civil War game Epic Battles series.
I honestly hate the tedium of painting. I don't know how some of you guys do it. I'm inspired seeing these two chaps demonstrate the game out-of-the-box and having fun with the figures as-is. I'm extremely interested now.
I just got my box of British minis. My first epic scales minus after 7 years of break for wargaming all together. I really have to say, it’s a blast! The minis feel really … numerous xD like you said it feels like you have thousands of men. But man, painting them is a real project! Would be great to see painting tutorial by you! and then I also have to collect the french since I don’t have anybody who wants to collect with me. I also planned on getting a 4x4 table setup. Do you think I can pull off a good game on that battlefield scale?
These chaps are great! I just finished watching the explanation video about Never mind the billhooks and am getting ready to get some perry etc and start the game.
I'm actually going to be backing up the acw version and will be my first venture into nepoleonics and am thrilled to seen how good they look on a 6x4 play area!
Not even "Dad buys his figures" I like the idea of Red vs Blue. I dont have time or the inclination to paint. I want huge armies that i can play straight away. My eyes and time went years ago. GOOD.
I might hope to buy command sticks on their own so to reduce the units size just to increase Brigade and Corps units but reduce frontage. Cigar battle mats and Geek squad mats for would handy at this scale with 15mm buildings
I LOVE EPIC SCALE. I used to have a massive epic scale warhammer 40,000 collection but my mum sold it on ebay because i owed her money :( Anyway, i recommend FLAGS. stick small flag poles to the base and make paper flags to distinguish troop types or units or both. i even created a version of warhammer that used morale and the flags showed the morale of the unit, green was hi, then if they got shot up it turned to a yellow flag and finally red flag for about to break etc. was ok but alot of flag staffs broke. where do i buy these figures???
I know this may be heresy but I do wish mini games would move to or at least have the option to have minis like this. Would love to play table top games but because of time and hand tremors since I was young, I can never paint up an army. When you think of it; mini-wargaming is two hobbies rolled into one. There is the plying side and the hobby/painting side. You can paint and not play but not play and not paint. Not fair.
We definitely agree! As long as those colour differences are there to represent each faction there's no harm at all. People that want to paint them can, and the people that just want to plug them onto the bases and get gaming can too! It's a win, win in our eyes!
@@WargamesIllustrated When U was young I had sets of WW2, The Blue and the Grey and Patriots & Redcoats. Used them for school displays to BB gun wars on the sand hills. And when done I could throw them into the box for the next time I wanted to play. Easy. There was a wargame company that had pre-painted minis from France I believe. They were a victim of their own success. But hat it did show is that there is a market for such. Does anyone remember a Nap era game Fire & Steel with the System 7 pre-printed bases? Just wondering.
You could have always used a rattle can spray paint to color your minis. I don't know why you felt you were prohibited from painting them, at least to the level of these Warlord plastic figures. So, you never really needed to rely on a company producing them in a specific color. Even with a shaky hand, you can always paint in a single color. With these figures, I would at least flat/matte coat them to get away from that shiny plastic look.
Sibourne had 10mm figures with a very basic paint job: brown horses, red coats, grey trousers etc. However he had helpers working for him I believe, casting the lead models then painting them roughly, not bothering overmuch or at all with fine detail, 'washes' and 'highlights'. With the need to create thousands of models he and his cohorts had to get a move on and not hang around, and they did it twice on a grand scale. Of course his masterpieces were dioramas which strove for realism in the overall appearance - perforce from a considerable distance away given the size of the tables - not kriegspiel. (I recall gazing at the smaller display - but still vast seeming, when it was on show in Dover Castle, many years ago and magnifying lenses which you could slide around were fixed to the glass case for close up looks. The patina of dust brought by many long years onto the landscape seemed to improve not detract from the thing overall). He did insert plenty of the fallen, both horses and men, and the troops were more closely packed, or massed, than most wargame models, making larger battalion sized blocks. No point trying to fight skirmish type games at this scale, with room for so many figurines! Surely these magnificent models deserve at least a basic paint job, just get on with it and don't agonise over irrelevant fine detail, if you can bring yourself to do that
How many kits would it take to play a battle of this size? Would this be two starter boxes per side? If I wanted to do a similar scale with the ACW, how many kits am I looking at there?
Like the figs but wish they would have matched the other lines, they are a bit small. Many with collections already may have been more inclined to buy them to fill in gaps. Cav is close to Mini Figs or Old Glory (Smaller riders but larger horses) and the same with the arty (Small crews, bigger guns). Also would have been able to use skirmishers and maybe the line figs trimmed down. As is now if you already have a Napoleonic collection in 15mm they are almost useless to try and bulk out your existing collections and many have too much invested to start over. So they did a Outstanding job of getting out a entry box for new Napoleonic's players, but it is almost useless for established players. Means they have a captive audience for their line with new players but little chance of spill over into the hardcore groups. Not sure if their intent was to lock new players into buying just their stuff or cost savings on making then about 10% smaller. Also means you can not use other lines for Austrians, Prussians, or Russians. Sort of makes it a one shot deal for them. May have worked for Civ war, but too many different units in Napoleonic's to try that game.
Totally agree. I think this was a bad marketing move. They have just about excluded all the established miniature players that have 15/18mm figures (including myself). I could have used some of these to add to my collection but the scale difference keeps me away. Another dumb decision is to have the infantry in blocks of 10. Way too large a frontage, and totally prevents us from using our favorite rules that use DBx or smaller basing frontages. It just forces you to use their rules (just plain greed really and short-sightedness) and increases the table sizes (or makes you play smaller battles, which kind of defeats the purpose of figures in this scale). This just smacks of GamesWorkshop and that style of marketing.
It seems they are just targeting the young player and those new to the game. They seem to want to lock them into this system and force them to buy just their products. It pretty much ignores/excludes the established and older players that already have 15mm figures. I would imagine that there are some that can live with the scale difference, and will modify (cut) those large 10-figure front infantry blocks into smaller stands. I can't stand this style of business model. In my opinion, it was a poor marketing decision and it is a product I will avoid.
It’s great for folks like me that don’t paint and new to the system and always wanted to play massive scale games and get it to the table instead of painting forever. The scale is a non issue.
@@dorb1530 You could have always done that before. Just use a large spray (rattle) can of flat (matt) paint. Since you only want a single color it takes hardly any time at all. The real difference is the cost. I guess these are a little cheaper because they are plastic, but if you just stick to these then you are limiting yourself to only what they offer in nationalities and unit types.
I have never liked Napoleonic wargames in 28mm as unless you have a massive table you have no room to maneuver. I already have 10 and 15mm Napoleonics so am unlikely to buy into 13mm, I suppose warlord want to get everyone to play their own scale.
Not painting miniatures is "sacrilege"? I'd hate to hear what you guys think of people who play with Kriegspiel style block armies like I do. I guess that is just outrageous heresy and I should be burned at the stake.
